… Crunchy Fennel Salad
This is one of those of those last minute meals. I was driving home from work, listening to the tail end of this weeks “This American Life Podcast” (which I really, really couldn’t recommend more highly), and decided that I needed to cook anther meal. (I do have a bit of guilt that my 2013 effort doesn’t remotely match my (late) 2012 effort). So I get home. I flick though the book. I pick this meal. I shop. I walk to the shop in the rain. I buy the ingredients. I walk back in the rain. I cook the meal. It’s that simple … well almost.
It’s a simple meal. Its pasta. It’s a red sauce pasta. It’s a Jamie red sauce pasta recipe. It’s like the other Jamie red sauce pasta recipes in his other books. Like 30 Minute Meals. Like others from 15 Minute meals. This isn’t a criticism. This isn’t a bad thing. This is a meal I know I can cook. A meal I know I’ll like. It’s pasta. It’s got good ingredients. A lot of them are whizzed up in the food processor first. It’s got fennel seeds. I know it will be good. And it is done in (a little) under the fifteen minute mark.
There are two issues to report.
1) This recipe calls for 700 ml of pasata. 700 ml of pasta is a lot of pasata. It really is. It’s a lot of pasata for a meal you’re gonna cook in fifteen minutes. But in reality you’re not. At least not the red sauce bit. That bit you’ll do in ten minutes. Tops. That’s a lot of sauce to cook down in ten minutes. My gut tells me not to put 700 ml of pasta in. My experience of cooking these 15 Minute Meals, tells me not to put 700 ml of pasata in. So I break a rule. One of my self imposed rules. But I break it. 500 ml goes in. Which I still think is a bit much for the time allowed. So there it is. Another rule broken. Again. There is photographic evidence …
2) I have to use the food processor twice. First for chopping (with the bowl blade). Second for slicing (with the fine slicer attachment). I’m trying to be bit tidier with cooking these meals. Which means I’m trying to put more rubbish in the bin. More dirty dishes in the sink. So I use the food processor. I put it in the sink. The sink is full. Full of water. Washing up water. Washing up water with bubbles in it .. This becomes an issue. It becomes and issue because I have only used my bowl blade. I have not done the necessary slicing. I realise I must slice. I must slice with my, now, soap suddy food processor. I therefore have to rinse it. I rinse it quickly which means I get wet. More than a little wet.
But notwithstanding the (two) issue. It’s done. It’s done in time. It’s a good meal … The pasta taste good. The salad is very good. And it made lunch for me the next day. Yes I did remember to take it to work.
Who with: Gavin
How long: Fourteen minutes and fifty two seconds
